Method and apparatus for managing data in a content management system

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to methods and apparatuses for data management in a system, in particular a content management system, comprising at least one server 101 and one or more clients 102a, 102b, 102c communicably connectable to the server, the server being configured to manage a plurality of mutable data objects and to enable the one or more clients to access data objects managed by the server. The management process includes executing, by the server, at least one of a plurality of data processing operations being respectively associated with a respective set of the plurality of data objects and outputting respective result data; receiving, by a client, first-type information indicative of the result data of the at least one data processing operation; storing, by the client, result data of the at least one data processing operation in a memory; receiving, by the first client, second-type information indicative of modification of at least one of the data objects; and determining, at the client and before using the result data of the at least one data processing operation stored in the memory, whether the respective result data is valid or not based on the first-type information and the second-type information.

The invention claimed is: 
     
       1. A method for data management in a content management system comprising at least one server and one or more clients communicably connectable to the server, the server being configured to manage a plurality of mutable data objects and to enable the one or more clients to access data objects managed by the server, the method comprising:
 receiving, by a first client of the one or more clients, first-type information indicative of result data of at least one data processing operation, including validation computation and/or indexing computation based on the current status of the data objects, the dependencies of the validation computation at the time of computation, and a respective associated set of data objects, 
 storing, by the first client, result data of the at least one data processing operation and received dependencies as a relation between validation computation and its associated dependencies in a memory, 
 receiving, by the first client, second-type information indicative of modification of at least one of the data objects, and 
 determining, at the first client and before using the result data of the at least one data processing operation stored in the memory, whether the respective result data is valid or not based on the first-type information and the second-type information. 
 
     
     
       2. The method of  claim 1  wherein:
 each of the at least one of a plurality of data processing operations, including validation computations and/or indexing computations, is associated with a respective set of the plurality of data objects and the respective result data being outputted by the respective data processing operation is indicative of a status of the respective set of data objects or a data object thereof; and/or 
 the method includes executing, by the server, at least one of a plurality of data processing operations, including validation computations and/or indexing computations, each data processing operation being associated with a respective set of the plurality of data objects and each data processing operation outputs respective result data indicative of a status of the respective set of data objects or a data object thereof. 
 
     
     
       3. The method of  claim 1  wherein:
 determining whether the respective result data is valid includes determining whether the second-type information indicates that at least one of the data objects included in the set of data objects associated with the respective data processing operation as indicated in the first-type information was modified. 
 
     
     
       4. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 requesting, by the first client, the server to re-execute at least one data processing operation if the associated result data, including result data stored in the memory at the first client, is determined to not be valid by the first client. 
 
     
     
       5. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 transmitting, by the server, and/or receiving, by the first client, first-type information indicative of updated result data of the at least one re-executed data processing operation and/or updated information on the respective associated set of data objects, and 
 determining, by the first client, whether the updated result data is valid or not based on a determination whether second-type information, which was received since the request to re-execute the at least one data processing operation, indicates that at least one of the data objects included in the set of data objects associated with the respective data processing operation was modified. 
 
     
     
       6. The method of  claim 1  wherein:
 at least one of the sets of data objects includes a single data object, and/or at least one of the sets of data objects includes plural data objects, including plural objects that are related to one or more documents. 
 
     
     
       7. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 receiving, by the first client from the server, second-type information as a stream of events of objects modifications in the system; and/or 
 transmitting, by the server to the first client or to all of the one or more clients, second-type information as a stream of events of objects modifications in the system. 
 
     
     
       8. The method of  claim 1  wherein:
 executing, by the server, the at least one of the data processing operations is performed including: 
 determining, by the server, upon or while executing the respective data processing operation, the data objects being used as input information for executing the respective data processing operation, and 
 generating, by the server, the first-type information indicative of the result data of the respective data processing operation and the respective associated set of data objects including the data objects being used as input information for executing the respective data processing operation. 
 
     
     
       9. The method of  claim 1  wherein:
 executing, by the server, the at least one of a plurality of data processing operations comprises determining, for each of the at least one of a plurality of data processing operations, a graphical representation to be displayed by the first client, the graphical representation being indicative of the current state of one or more data objects. 
 
     
     
       10. The method of  claim 1  wherein:
 executing, by the server, the at least one of a plurality of data processing operations comprises determining, for each of the at least one of a plurality of data processing operations, whether the respective set of data objects complies with one or more criteria, and 
 wherein the status of the respective set of data objects indicated in the respective result data is indicative of whether the respective set of data objects complies with the respective one or more criteria. 
 
     
     
       11. The method of  claim 1  wherein:
 respective result data of at least one of the data processing operations is different for different clients requesting the execution of the respective data processing operation; or 
 respective result data of at least one of the data processing operations is independent on which client requested the execution of the respective data processing operation. 
 
     
     
       12. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 determining, by the server, upon a request for second-type information, time information that comprises time stamps, digital timestamps, clock time and/or logical timestamps identifying the state of the plurality of data objects, 
 requesting, by the first client, additional second-type information based on time information received with second-type received during another request, in particular another earlier and/or independent request, and 
 determining, by the server, second-type information comprising the set of data object modifications since said other request. 
 
     
     
       13. A method for data management in a content management system comprising at least one server and one or more clients communicably connectable to the server, the server being configured to manage a plurality of mutable data objects and to enable the one or more clients to access data objects managed by the server, the method comprising:
 executing, by the server, at least one of a plurality of data processing operations, including validation computations and/or indexing computations, each data processing operation being associated with a respective set of the plurality of data objects and each data processing operation outputs respective result data indicative of a status of the respective set of data objects or a data object thereof; 
 determining, by the server, the dependencies of the validation computation at the time of computation; 
 transmitting, by the server to a first client of the one or more clients, first-type information indicative of result data of at least one data processing operation, including validation computation and/or indexing computation based on the current status of the data objects, the determined dependencies of the validation computation, and a respective associated set of data objects, and 
 transmitting, by the server to the first client or to all of the one or more clients, second-type information indicative of modification of at least one of the data objects for determining whether the respective result data is valid or not based on the first-type information and the second-type information. 
 
     
     
       14. The method of  claim 13 , further comprising:
 requesting, by the first client, the server to re-execute at least one data processing operation if the associated result data, including result data stored in the memory at the first client, is determined to not be valid by the first client. 
 
     
     
       15. The method of  claim 13 , further comprising:
 transmitting, by the server, and/or receiving, by the first client, first-type information indicative of updated result data of the at least one re-executed data processing operation and/or updated information on the respective associated set of data objects, and 
 determining, by the first client, whether the updated result data is valid or not based on a determination whether second-type information, which was received since the request to re-execute the at least one data processing operation, indicates that at least one of the data objects included in the set of data objects associated with the respective data processing operation was modified. 
 
     
     
       16. The method of  claim 13  wherein:
 at least one of the sets of data objects includes a single data object, and/or at least one of the sets of data objects includes plural data objects, including plural objects that are related to one or more documents. 
 
     
     
       17. The method of  claim 13 , further comprising:
 receiving, by the first client from the server, second-type information as a stream of events of objects modifications in the system; and/or 
 transmitting, by the server to the first client or to all of the one or more clients, second-type information as a stream of events of objects modifications in the system. 
 
     
     
       18. The method of  claim 13  wherein:
 executing, by the server, the at least one of the data processing operations is performed including: 
 determining, by the server, upon or while executing the respective data processing operation, the data objects being used as input information for executing the respective data processing operation, and 
 generating, by the server, the first-type information indicative of the result data of the respective data processing operation and the respective associated set of data objects including the data objects being used as input information for executing the respective data processing operation. 
 
     
     
       19. The method of  claim 13  wherein:
 executing, by the server, the at least one of a plurality of data processing operations comprises determining, for each of the at least one of a plurality of data processing operations, a graphical representation to be displayed by the first client, the graphical representation being indicative of the current state of one or more data objects. 
 
     
     
       20. The method of  claim 13  wherein:
 executing, by the server, the at least one of a plurality of data processing operations comprises determining, for each of the at least one of a plurality of data processing operations, whether the respective set of data objects complies with one or more criteria, and 
 wherein the status of the respective set of data objects indicated in the respective result data is indicative of whether the respective set of data objects complies with the respective one or more criteria. 
 
     
     
       21. The method of  claim 13  wherein:
 respective result data of at least one of the data processing operations is different for different clients requesting the execution of the respective data processing operation; or 
 respective result data of at least one of the data processing operations is independent on which client requested the execution of the respective data processing operation. 
 
     
     
       22. The method of  claim 13 , further comprising:
 determining, by the server, upon a request for second-type information, time information that comprises time stamps, digital timestamps, clock time and/or logical timestamps identifying the state of the plurality of data objects, 
 requesting, by the first client, additional second-type information based on time information received with second-type received during another request, in particular another earlier and/or independent request, and 
 determining, by the server, second-type information comprising the set of data object modifications since said other request. 
 
     
     
       23. A system comprising at least one server and one or more clients communicably connectable to the server; the system being configured to execute a method comprising:
 receiving, by a first client of the one or more clients, first-type information indicative of result data of at least one data processing operation, including validation computation and/or indexing computation based on the current status of the data objects, the dependencies of the validation computation at the time of computation, and a respective associated set of data objects; 
 storing, by the first client, result data of the at least one data processing operation and received dependencies as a relation between validation computations and its associated dependencies in a memory; 
 receiving, by the first client, second-type information indicative of modification of at least one of the data objects; and 
 determining, at the first client and before using the result data of the at least one data processing operation stored in the memory, whether the respective result data is valid or not based on the first-type information and the second-type information; 
 wherein the server is configured to manage a plurality of data objects and to enable the one or more clients to modify data objects managed by the server, to execute at least one of a plurality of data processing operations, each data processing operation being associated with a respective set of the plurality of data objects and each data processing operation outputs respective result data indicative of a status of the respective set of data objects, and to determine the dependencies of the validation computation at the time of computation; 
 wherein each client of the one or more clients is configured to receive first-type information indicative of the result data of the at least one data processing operation, the dependencies of the validation computation at the time of computation, and the respective associated set of data objects, and a second-type information indicative of modification of at least one of the data objects by one of the one or more clients, to store result data of the at least one data processing operation and received dependencies as a relation between validation computations and its associated dependencies in a memory of the respective client, and to determine before using the result data of the at least one data processing operation stored in the memory, whether the respective result data is valid or not based on the first-type and second-type information. 
 
     
     
       24. A computer program product for one or more clients communicably connectable to a server, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer usable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein, said computer readable program code adapted to be executed to implement a method comprising:
 receiving, by a first client of the one or more clients, first-type information indicative of result data of at least one data processing operation, including validation computation and/or indexing computation based on the current status of the data objects, the dependencies of the validation computation at the time of computation, and a respective associated set of data objects, 
 storing, by the first client, result data of the at least one data processing operation and received dependencies as a relation between validation computations and its associated dependencies in a memory, 
 receiving, by the first client, second-type information indicative of modification of at least one of the data objects, and 
 determining, at the first client and before using the result data of the at least one data processing operation stored in the memory, whether the respective result data is valid or not based on the first-type information and the second-type information.